I smiled and sat down. “You won’t be able to explain anything to anyone tonight if I leave you alone,” I said. “I don’t mind sitting around, really. I’ll go into the other room when your aunt gets here so you can talk privately.”
Marina whirled around, angry frustration mirrored in her face.
I picked up a magazine and casually started to thumb through it.
Marina paced back and forth a few times, went into the kitchen, came out again and sat down, got up again, walked to the window and sat down again.
“Something bothering you, doll?” I asked casually.
“Yes,” she snapped. “This whole thing. It’s just silly. It just won’t work this way. I want you to leave and I’ll call you after my aunt’s gone.”
I got up slowly, smiling, and she didn’t read the cold deadliness in it. “All right, sweetie,” I said. “After I do one thing.”
“What’s that?” she asked quickly.
I walked over to where she sat, looked down at her and then shot out a hand and grabbed the black bra in the center. As I yanked her up and onto her feet, the bra pulled down and her lovely breasts sprang free.
“After I get the truth out of you,” I snarled.
She tried to tear free, but I had her wrist now, and I whirled her around and slammed her down on the rug.
Her eyes were wide with helpless fear.
“The truth, Marina, and quick,” I said.
“You... you’re hurting me,” she said.
I loosened my grip on her wrist and with my other hand, began to caress the soft, smooth pink tips of her breasts.
“Sorry,” I said. “Is this better?”
Her eyes, black with anger at first, began to change to something else.
“Stop it,” she cried. “Stop it.”
I felt the smooth tips begin to grow hard and rise at my caresses. I continued to stroke them, gently, rhythmically.
“Oh, God, please stop,” she gasped out. “Please, Glen... don’t.”
“When did you hear from him?” I asked suddenly, taking my hand from her breast at the same time.
She looked up at me, her lower lip quivering.
I touched her nipple again and freed her other arm. “The truth, Marina,” I said softly. “Tell me.”
Her eyes looked up at me, suddenly filled with tears, and then she broke, flinging her face against my chest and sobbing, short, gasping sobs.
I held her tight.
“Where is he?” I asked firmly. “Come on, Marina. Tell me.”
“I don’t know,” she sobbed into my chest. “He called last night. I promised I wouldn’t tell anyone.”
“I want to help you,” I said. “And him too.”
She pulled her head back and wiped the tears from her eyes.
I let her sit up.
“He’s going to call me again this morning, sometime, when he can get to a phone,” she blurted out. “He has money in a locker and the key someplace. I’m to get the key, take the money and bring it to him. He’ll give me full instructions when he calls back.”
“That’s why you dozed on the sofa,” I finished for her. “You wanted to be ready the moment he called.”
She nodded. She was telling the truth, all she knew, and this was my golden opportunity to find Karminian.
I needed her cooperation. I didn’t want her trying to give me the slip when she went to meet him so I decided to level with her, telling her as much as I knew.
I began with the two Karminians and their activities as espionage informants and when I’d finished she was pale and shaken, her eyes deep and round.
“I would never have believed it,” she said quietly. “And you aren’t an artist at all, then. I was right in suspecting that, Glen.”
“Oh, I’ve been called an artist in my work.” I grinned. “And you can stop calling me Glen. It’s Nick — Nick Carter.”
“Nick,” she said, turning it over in her mind, savoring it aloud. “Yes, it fits you better,” she said finally. “It fits that sense of urgency and danger I first felt about you.”
Marina leaned forward and I had to hold back from scooping those two beautiful breasts up in my hands.
“Poor Anton,” she said sadly.
“Which Karminian has contacted you?” I asked. “Did you hear any voice difference?”
“Why, it had to be my Anton,” she replied. “I doubt the other one knew I existed, and only my Anton knew the little things between us he mentioned. Promise me he won’t be hurt, Nick. I feel terrible enough about going back on my word to him.”
“My people won’t hurt him,” I answered. “The Russians have other methods but they’re out of the picture now. The Rifs will certainly kill him. They might torture him to find out exactly how much he knows, first. And you shouldn’t feel horrible about having told me. You’re doing him a hell of a favor. You’re saving his neck.”
She put her head against my shoulder. It would have been so easy to take her in my arms and make love to her but I didn’t. That was not something I wanted to have stopped in the middle by a phone call. Not with Marina.
As it was, we didn’t have to wait long. When the phone jangled, Marina’s eyes flew to mine and her lips tightened.
“Answer it,” I said firmly. “Be yourself. Loosen up.”
She swallowed hard, picked up the phone and I watched her as she spoke to him, her eyes riveted on me all the while.
